CV

Contact Information

Name Cristian C. Beltran-Hernandez
Professional Title Senior Researcher
Location Tokyo, Japan

Languages

English : Advanced
Japanese : Conversational
Spanish : Native

Interests

Robot Manipulation: Contact-rich manipulation, Assembly Automation, Task and Motion Planning
Robot Learning: Reinforcement Learning, Multimodal Learning, Force/Tactile feedback control

Skills

Robot Manipulation: Contact-rich manipulation, Peg-in-hole and object insertion, Industrial assembly automation, Food preparation (slicing, scooping), Granular and powder handling
Robot Learning: Deep reinforcement learning, Imitation learning from demonstrations, Diffusion policies, Sim-to-real transfer, Curriculum learning, Learning under partial observability
Force and Compliance Control: Variable compliance control, Hybrid trajectory-and-force learning, Force control on position-controlled arms, Haptic feedback teleoperation
Tools and Frameworks: Python, C++, ROS, MoveIt, Robot simulation: (Gazebo, MuJoCo, Isaac Sim/Lab)

Education

  • 2019 - 2022

    Osaka, Japan

    PhD
    The University of Osaka
    Engineering
    • Learning force control for contact-rich manipulations with position controlled robots.
    • Industrial assembly automation with ROS and MoveIt.
  • 2017 - 2019

    Osaka, Japan

    MEng
    The University of Osaka
    Intelligent Systems
    • Learning robot manipulation via Reinforcement Learning.
    • Learning force control for contact-rich manipulations with position controlled robots.
  • 2009 - 2013

    Chia, Colombia

    BSc
    University of La Sabana
    Computer Science
    • Thesis topic: Development of a fuzzy Logic-based system to monitor and control an algae bio-reactor on a PLC.

Experience

  • 2024 - present

    Tokyo, Japan

    Senior Researcher
    OMRON SINIC X Corporation
    Leading research on robot learning of contact-rich manipulation for automation of industrial assembly task and every day tasks.
  • 2023 - 2024

    Tokyo, Japan

    Research Engineer
    OMRON SINIC X Corporation
    Leading research on robot learning of contact-rich manipulation from cooking robots to assembly automation.
  • 2022 - 2023

    Tokyo, Japan

    Visiting Researcher
    OMRON SINIC X Corporation
    Research on contact-rich robot manipulation for a cooking robot; learning to slice food.
  • 2021 - 2022

    Osaka, Japan

    Participant
    Google Summer of Code & MoveIt
    Worked with the open-source organization MoveIt to develop a Simultaneous Trajectory Execution module for the popular motion planner MoveIt.
  • 2021 - 2022

    Osaka, Japan

    Research Intern
    OMRON SINIC X Corporation
    Research on robot manipulation for a cooking robot (part-time Oct 2021–Sep 2022). Full-time Mar–Sep 2021; implementation of a ROS-based autonomous robotic system for industrial assembly and motion controllers on MoveIt. System showcased at World Robot Summit (WRS2020) Industrial Robot Category - Assembly Challenge; 3rd place and special award from JSAI.
  • 2018 - 2021

    Osaka, Japan

    Ph.D. Student Researcher
    The University of Osaka & FUJIFILM Corporation
    Working with Prof Kensuke Harada and Fujifilm R&D to create motion planning solutions for industrial assembly tasks based on Reinforcement Learning techniques.
  • 2016 - 2017

    Bogota, Colombia

    Software Developer
    La Cadena Retail Solutions Ltda
    Design and development of an administrative web application. Backend Java 8 (Spring Boot, Security, Cloud, Rest), Microsoft SQL Server. Frontend JavaScript ES6, React JS, Redux, Material Design. Restful Webservices.
  • 2013 - 2016

    Bogota, Colombia

    Software Engineer
    Netlogistik
    Software design and implementation for supply chain and warehouse management systems (WMS RedPrairie / JDA). Design, implementation and integration of modules and customizations; multi-language (Java, C#, C, Groovy, SQL Server, Oracle SQL and PL/SQL). Consulting for design, configuration, implementation, and go-live with national and international clients.

Grants

Grant-in-Aid for Scientific Research (B) — JSPS: Co-investigator, 2025–2028. Japan Society for the Promotion of Science.
Body Integration Learning CREST — JST: Co-investigator, 2025–2030. Japan Science and Technology Agency.
Grant-in-Aid for Scientific Research (A) — JSPS: Co-investigator, 2021–2024. Japan Society for the Promotion of Science. Motion generation for robots performing diverse tasks from natural-language instructions.
Ph.D. scholarship — MEXT: 3-year doctoral scholarship, from 2019. Japanese Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology.
M.Sc. scholarship — MEXT: 2-year master's scholarship, from 2017. Japanese Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology.

Awards

  • 2024
    2nd Best Poster
    IROS 2024 Collecting, Managing, and Utilizing Data through embodied Robots workshop

  • 2024
    Best Poster
    ICRA 2024 Cooking Robotics workshop

  • 2024
    Best Video
    ICRA 2024 Cooking Robotics workshop

  • 2022
    Doctoral Program Representative (博士課程代表者)
    The University of Osaka, Autumn 2022 degree conferment ceremony

  • 2021
    3rd Place
    World Robot Summit 2020 Industrial Assembly Challenge

    Robotic competition to solve industrial assembly tasks.

  • 2021
    Japanese Society of Artificial Intelligence (JSAI) Award
    World Robot Summit 2020 Industrial Assembly Challenge

    Special award from the Japanese Society of Artificial Intelligence (JSAI).

  • 2019
    Best Oral Presentation (優秀講演賞) (SI2019)
    20th SICE System Integration Division Annual Conference (第20回計測自動制御学会システムインテグレーション部門講演会)

  • 2019
    Best Paper Award Finalist
    2019 IEEE/SICE International Symposium on System Integrations (SII)

  • 2018
    Finalist of International Session Best Paper Award
    The 36th Annual Conference of the Robotics Society of Japan (RSJ)

Invited talks

Leveraging Active Compliance Control for Contact-Rich Manipulation with Rigid Robot Manipulators: 153rd Robotics Seminar (第153回ロボット工学セミナー), Robotics Society of Japan, June 2024.

Academic services

  • Program committee
    • IEEE/SICE SII2025 Special Session — Reconfigurable Manipulation Robots
    • IEEE/SICE SII2025 Workshop — Reconfigurable Manipulation Robots
    • ICRA 2022 Workshop — Reinforcement Learning for Contact-Rich Manipulation
  • Technical Program Committee: IEEE ANDESCON 2020, Ecuador
  • Associate Editor: ICRA 2025, ICRA 2026
  • Conference Reviewer: RSS, ICRA, IROS, CASE, ETCM, ANDESCON
  • Journal Reviewer
    • IEEE Robotics and Automation Letters
    • IEEE Transactions on Automation Science and Engineering
    • Engineering Applications of Artificial Intelligence
    • Experimental Techniques (EXTE)

Memberships

  • IEEE — Member, 2012–present
  • IEEE Robotics and Automation Society — Member, 2019–present
  • Robotics Society of Japan (RSJ) — Member, July 2019–present